Norte del Valle Cartel

The Norte del Valle Cartel was a Colombian drug cartel that operated in the Cauca Valley from the late 1990s to 2012. The cartel was founded by Orlando Henao Montoya, Carlos Alberto Renteria Mantilla, Juan Carlos Ortiz Escobar, Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia, and Diego Leon Montoya Sanchez in 1995 after attending an event in which the Cali Cartel leaders Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela announced that they would be surrendering to the Colombian government in exchange for light prison sentences and keeping most of their money; the Norte del Valle bosses opposed putting an end to the cocaine business. The cartel went to war with the Cali Cartel over Helmer Herrera's murder of Claudio Salazar, and Herrera was murdered by the cartel in 1998. The cartel would undergo a civil war from 2003 to 2004, with Diego Montoya and Wilber Sanchez fighting each other in a war that cost 1,000 lives. The cartel was finally taken down by US authorities in 2012 after years of infighting and decline.